Following Two and Half Year Long Campaign, UANI Applauds Maersk for Ending Port Calls to Iran

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 9, 2012 Contact: Nathan Carleton, press@uani.com  Phone: (212) 554-3296 Following Two and Half Year Long Campaign, UANI Applauds Maersk for Ending Port Calls to Iran New York, NY - United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) on Tuesday applauded Denmark's Maersk, the world's largest shipping container company, for ending port calls to Iran. Since July 2010, UANI has been pressuring Maersk to end its business in Iran. As part of its campaign UANI ran advertisements and organized protests outside of Maersk facilities. Said UANI CEO, Ambassador Mark D. Wallace: Following its interim business decision to suspend its work in Iran, Maersk has finally made the right decision, and fully ceased its shipping there. As a result, Iran will now be even more isolated from the rest of the world, as the world's largest shipping company has declared it closed for business. Iran's shipping industry is in free-fall as insurers, classification societies, and shipping companies cease their business with Iran as the regime continues to defy the international community's diplomatic efforts to end its illicit nuclear program. The few shipping companies that continue doing business in Iran are complicit in the regime's unlawful actions and should pull out immediately. As part of its Maersk campaign, UANI ran a billboard outside of Maersk's Virginia headquarters, which was covered by Hampton Roads WAVY-TV 10, and held a protest against Maersk at the Maryland Port Authority. In June of 2011, Maersk suspended shipments to those Iranian ports managed by the sanctioned Tidewater Middle East Co. UANI called on Maersk to go further and fully end its business with Iran, particularly given the multi-billion dollar contracts Maersk receives from the U.S. Defense Department. UANI has highlighted the shipping industry as an area where the international community can further pressure Iran. In a March 17 Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, six UANI board members wrote that "the world must deny Iran's access to international shipping, a move that would severely affect the regime given its dependence on global trade and seaborne crude oil exports." The prominent shipping services Bureau Veritas, Germanischer Lloyd, the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping, the Korean Register of Shipping, and ClassNK all recently stopped certifying Iranian vessels in response to UANI. Click here to read UANI's November 17, 2010 letter to Maersk. Click here to watch the WAVY-TV story "Anti-Iran Group Blasts Maersk." Click here to view UANI's Maersk billboard in Norfolk, VA. Click here to view photos of UANI's Maersk protest in Baltimore. Click here to view UANI's Maersk billboard in Baltimore.   ###  United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a program of the American Coalition Against Nuclear Iran, Inc., a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran should concern every American and be unacceptable to the community of nations. Since 1979 the Iranian regime, most recently under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's leadership, has demonstrated increasingly threatening behavior and rhetoric toward the US and the West. Iran continues to defy the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the United Nations in their attempts to monitor its nuclear activities. A number of Arab states have warned that Iran's development of nuclear weapons poses a threat to Middle East stability and could provoke a regional nuclear arms race. In short, the prospect of a nuclear armed Iran is a danger to world peace. United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a non-partisan, broad-based coalition that is united in a commitment to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons.  UANI is an issue-based coalition in which each coalition member will have its own interests as well as the collective goal of advancing an Iran free of nuclear weapons. The Objectives of United Against a Nuclear Iran Inform the public about the nature of the Iranian regime, including its desire and intent to possess nuclear weapons, as well as Iran's role as a state sponsor of global terrorism, and a major violator of human rights at home and abroad; Heighten awareness nationally and internationally about the danger that a nuclear armed Iran poses to the region and the world; Mobilize public support, utilize media outreach, and persuade our elected leaders to voice a robust and united American opposition to a nuclear Iran; Lay the groundwork for effective US policies in coordination with European and other allies; Persuade the regime in Tehran to desist from its quest for nuclear weapons, while striving not to punish the Iranian people, and; Promote efforts that focus on vigorous national and international, social, economic, political and diplomatic measures. UANI is led by an advisory board of outstanding national figures representing all sectors of our country.

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